Luxury vinyl plank has taken over for a reason. It's genuinely waterproof, it handles the humidity swings this state puts a house through, pets can't scratch through the wear layer easily, and it's forgiving of a subfloor that isn't perfectly flat. The thing to look at when you shop is the wear layer thickness, measured in mils, not the overall plank thickness. Twelve mil and up holds up in a household with traffic. The cheapest products fail at the wear layer long before anything else.
Laminate is harder underfoot and often looks sharper than mid-range vinyl, with a tough surface that resists scratching well. Its weakness is standing water at the seams, which swells the core permanently. In a kitchen, a bathroom, or a laundry room, we'd steer you to vinyl. In bedrooms and a living room, laminate is a strong value.
Hardwood, engineered or solid, is still the one that adds value to a house and the one people miss when it's gone. It scratches, it dents, and it does not appreciate standing water. But it can be refinished, which nothing else on this list can. If you already have original hardwood under carpet, have someone look at it before you cover it with anything. Refinishing existing boards is frequently cheaper than new flooring and always better.
Tile wins in wet rooms and on entries that catch red clay, and it is the only one of these that genuinely does not care what you spill on it. The trade-offs are cost, cold feet in January, and the fact that a bad tile installation announces itself forever through cracked grout and lippage at the edges.
Whatever goes down, the subfloor decides how it performs. A squeak, a soft spot, or a dip of more than a quarter inch over six feet will come through the new floor and void most manufacturer warranties. We screw down loose sheathing, cut out and replace soft spots, level what needs leveling, and moisture-test concrete before anything goes over it. That prep is unglamorous and it is the difference between a floor you forget about and one that annoys you every day.